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What happened to our tax cut? Although taxpayers' money is rolling into the U.S. Treasury at an unprecedented rate, we didn't get the tax cut Republicans
promised. Bill Clinton vetoed the small tax cut passed by
Congress in 1999 because, as he said in Buffalo in Jan.
1999, the people might not "spend it right." From both
parties, we only hear talk about "targeted" cuts, which
means small tax cuts provided we spend the savings for
government-designated purposes. (PSR: 2/98, p.1-2)

Can the President wage unconstitutional war?
When the truth is finally known, the big majority of
House Republicans will be able to take pride in their
foresight in going on record against Clinton's war in
Yugoslavia: 91% voted to require Congressional approval before sending in ground troops (H.R.1569,
4/28/99), 84% voted against the bombing (S.Con.Res.21,
4/28/99), 78% voted against sending in peacekeeping
troops (H.Con.Res.42, 3/11/99), and 57% voted to
withdraw the troops Clinton had already sent in
(H.Con.Res.82, 4/28/99). (PSR: 12/99, p.3; 7/99, p.2&4; 5/99,
p.2-4; 3/99, p.1-2)

But then the Republican House leadership pushed
through an appropriation giving Clinton double the funds
he requested to pay for the war he had already waged.
This was called spending for "defense" but it was actually
spending for Clinton's offensive war (H.R.1141,
5/18/99), and he signed the bill 5/21/99.

Will the U.S. be locked into a 'web' of treaties?
(PSR: 10/97, p.1-4; 9/97, p.1-4)

In a big defeat for Clinton, the Republican Senate
killed the dangerous Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
which Clinton signed in 1996. It would have crippled our
nuclear defense by forbidding even underground nuclear
tests while we would not be able to verify other countries' compliance. (PSR: 12/99, p.2)

Congress halted Clinton's plans to implement the
unratified Global Warming (Hot Air) Treaty, which has
never even been submitted to the Senate. The Consolidated Appropriations Act included a provision to forbid
Clinton from proposing or issuing "rules, regulations,
decrees, or orders for the purpose of implementation, or
in preparation for implementation, of the Kyoto Protocol." (PSR: 1/98, p.4)

The American Land Sovereignty Protection Act
(ALSPA), H.R.883, passed the House in May. ALSPA
reaffirms that U.S. lands are under the authority of
Congress -- not the UN -- and states that the UN will no
longer be able to designate U.S. lands as "World Heritage
Sites" or "biosphere reserves" without congressional
approval. This bill would protect U.S. sovereignty
against attacks made possible by a treaty ratified in 1972
called the World Heritage Convention. No action has yet
been taken on the Senate companion bill, S.510.

In the Commerce/Justice/State Appropriations bill,
Rep. J.D. Hayworth's (R-AZ) H.Amdt.412 to H.R.2670
added language (adopted Aug. 5 by 217-209) that prohibits the State Department from spending funds in support
of "adding or maintaining any World Heritage Site in the
United States" pursuant to this same treaty. However,
without ALSPA, the UN can still designate "heritage
sites" in the U.S.

Goodbye U.S. Canal in Panama! December 31,
1999 was the historic date when the United States turned
over our magnificent Canal to Panama under terms of the
Jimmy Carter-Torrijos Panama Treaties ratified in 1978
by a margin of one vote, despite the overwhelming
opposition of the American people. Clinton's friends, the
Communist Chinese, will now be the gatekeeper of the
Canal we built because a Hong Kong firm has acquired
50-year leases to occupy a strategic port at each end of
the Canal: Balboa on the Pacific and Cristobal on the
Atlantic. Panama has no army even to defend the Canal
against the drug terrorists coming from Columbia.

Although he has traveled to more countries than any
U.S. President in history, Clinton didn't go to Panama for
the lowering of the U.S. Flag because photos would have
been too politically damaging, especially after he admitted on Nov. 30 that the Chinese will be "running the
Canal." Why is he sending U.S. troops all over the world
to places where we have no national security interest but
won't negotiate for a single U.S. soldier to be stationed at
the world's most strategically significant waterway?

Despite the illegalities of the Panama Treaty (the
U.S. Senate and Panama ratified different "reservations")
and corruption in the bidding process for the ports,
Congress is not disposed to try to retain the Canal.
However, bills have been introduced to partially safeguard U.S. interests. Sen. Jeff Sessions' S.Con.Res.6
and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's H.Con.Res.186 demand a
continued U.S. defense presence in Panama and a review
of the bidding process for the ports. Sen. Bob Smith's
S.Con.Res.59 urges the President to negotiate a new
agreement with Panama to station U.S. Armed Forces in
Panama to defend the Canal. (PSR: 11/99, p.1-2; 7/99, p.3)

Will we ever get SDI -- and do we need it? Back
in 1983, Ronald Reagan urged us to build an anti-missile
defense, but we still don't have it even though Russia
has 10 of its most sophisticated ICBMs on "combat
alert" and Communist China has 13 ICBMs targeted on
U.S. cities. We need SDI more than ever. On Mar. 18
by 317-105 the House passed the National Missile
Defense Act, H.R.4, stating that "it is the policy of the
United States to deploy a national missile defense." The
Senate passed it unanimously on May 18. However,
when Clinton signed it on July 22, making it Public Law
No. 106-38, he said it was not the intention of his
Administration to deploy a missile defense system
anytime in the near future. (PSR: 4/99, p.3-4)

Congress has yet to face up to the national security
threat to American lives, property and interests posed by
the growing Chinese military and nuclear arsenal.
Where does China get the funds and the know-how to
build a modern military machine? The Cox Report
released May 25 exposed China's strategy and success in
obtaining U.S. military technology through espionage,
transfers of technology as part of all commercial transactions, and illegal political donations especially to
Clinton's reelection. This strategy has given China's
nuclear program a ten-year leap. (PSR: 7/99, p.1; 4/99, p.2)

China gets the funds to finance its military-industrial
complex from its extraordinary favorable balance of
trade with the U.S. Every month, China sells us $6
billion in goods but buys only $1 billion, meaning that
China's People's Liberation Army pockets $5 billion in
hard U.S. cash every month.

Yet despite this military threat, despite the revelations in the Cox Report, despite China's blatant theft of
U.S. intellectual property, despite the escalating human
rights violations, and despite China's refusal to admit
U.S. goods on the same basis and at the same low tariff
we give their goods, the House on July 27 renewed Most
Favored Nation (now called "Normal") Trading Relations with China. This issue will come up again in 2000,
but Congress seems afraid even to discuss the China
issue in terms of unfair trade, military threat, espionage,
or human rights. (PSR: 6/98, p.1-3)

Education is a major issue but Congress is
floundering. (PSR: 10/99, p.1-4 on phonics; 7/96, p.1-4 on
phonics; 5/93, p.1-4 on OBE)

Goals 2000 was due to expire Sept. 30, 1999, but
Congress extended it until Sept. 30, 2000, at which time
Titles III and IV (but not I, II and V) will be automatically repealed. Meanwhile, at a Feb. 20, 1999 meeting,
recognizing that the goals were not reached by the
deadline, the National Education Goals Panel passed a
resolution suggesting to Congress that it be renamed
"America's Education Goals" and the goals extended
"beyond the year 2000 without a specific deadline for
their achievement." We will have to work hard to keep
Goals 2000 from getting more funding. (PSR: 4/97, p.1-4)

School-to-Work received a $110 million budget
from the Labor and the Education portion of the FY2000
budget, H.R.3424. This was slightly less than the
previous year. (PSR: 4/97, p.2; STW flier)

The $11 billion Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) contains the bulk of federal spending in
education. Numerous studies show that the results of
this 34-year-old program are pitiful, but Congress has no
political will to end this boondoggle. House Republicans tried to change the education debate by promoting
the Straight A's bill, H.R.2300, to allow states to take
the federal cash but opt out of the federal strings in
exchange for setting and meeting academic test goals.
Last-minute whining from Education Subcommittee
Chairman Mike Castle (R-DE) changed this plan from a
50-state program to a 10-state pilot program.

The Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA),
which gives federal grants to feminist organizations to
promote "gender equity," was stripped out in committee
but added back on the House floor. The House on Oct.
20 passed the Mink-Woolsey-Sanchez-Morella amendment 311-111 to authorize $5 million a year to continue
this "feminist pork."

The Education Budget bill, H.R. 3424, contained
Sec. 303: "No funds appropriated under this Act may be
used to prevent the implementation of programs of
voluntary prayer and meditation in the public schools."

The House passed 248-180 Rep. Robert Aderholt's
(R-AL) amendment to the Juvenile Justice/Gun Control
bill, H.R. 1501, on June 17 to allow states to publicly
display the Ten Commandments on publicly owned
property (which would include schools).

Will Republicans address the big issue of Health
Care? We heard posturing from both sides of the aisle
about plans to impose more regulations and controls on
health care and health insurance, but no serious move to
address the real reason why health insurance is expensive and why so many millions don't have it. The
fundamental problem is that the system is rigged so that,
unless you have a job with an employer offering a good
health plan, health insurance is difficult or sometimes
impossible to obtain. (PSR: 6/96, p.1-4)

An essential part of Clinton's original plan for
national health care was to control all treatment through
the use of a medical ID card, called a "unique health
identifier," for every American. A temporary moratorium on the medical ID card "until legislation is enacted
specifically approving the standard" was passed in the
Consolidated Appropriations Act.

When Congress failed to meet a deadline of Aug.
21, 1999 to enact legislation regarding the privacy of
electronic medical information, the authority to write
regulations passed to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala.
She has published a proposed 400+ page regulation on
medical privacy and the public can send comments until
Feb. 17, 2000 to: US Dept. of HHS, Asst Secy for Planning and
Evaluation, Attn: Privacy-P, Room G-322A, Hubert Humphrey Bldg.,
200 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20201. (sample letter)

Congress took another step toward a government
cradle-to-grave healthcare tracking system by requiring
"all babies" born in hospitals to get a "hearing screening
before leaving the birthing facility." Under Title VI of
H.R.3424, the Labor/Health & Human Services/Education Appropriations bill, states are "to collect data" for
"research, program evaluation and policy development,"
and the Centers for Disease Control is instructed to
"promote the sharing of data" with other "monitoring
programs." The real purposes of this law are to get all
Americans on a government medical-records database
and to implement Hillary Clinton's plan for children to
be raised by the "village" instead of their parents. (PSR:
9/99, p.4)

The House Government Reform Committee held
hearings on federal vaccine policy and injuries. Most
children get at least 21 vaccines before starting school
including 3 Hepatitis B, 5 DPT, 3 Hib, 4 polio, and 2
measles-mumps-rubella. Embarrassed federal health
officials suspended use of the rotavirus (infant diarrhea)
vaccine on Oct. 23 because of the "causal connection"
with a life-threatening bowel obstruction called
intussusception. Until the day before, the government's
official position was that all infants should get 3 doses of
this vaccine. (PSR: 9/99, p.2-3; 2/99, p.1-4)

Congress in 1999 repealed the section of the 1996
Illegal Immigration and Welfare Reform laws which
would have federalized driver's licenses into a national
ID card by requiring them to contain "machine-readable"
Social Security numbers. The repeal was part of the
FY2000 Transportation Appropriations bill, H.R.2084.
Driver's licenses should be under state, not federal,
jurisdiction. Unfortunately, some states are already
requiring Social Security numbers and even fingerprinting on driver's licenses.

Thanks to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), this same
law included a provision prohibiting the selling of
driver's license information without your permission.

Sen. Shelby tried to amend the big banking bill to
prohibit banks from selling personal financial information without the customers' consent. But these secret
sales by banks are so profitable that the banking lobby
was able to prevent passage of the Shelby amendment.
This was one of the many evidences we saw in the
current Congress of the powerful influence of corporate
"soft money." (For information about how corporate money
lobbied the banking bill, see "Hooray for Soft Money," Wall Street
Journal, 10/27/99, reporting that the banks spent $145 million in
political money and $163 million for lobbying during 1997 and 1998.
For how corporate money lobbied the Copyright Term Extension bill
for Disney, see PSR, 12/98, p.4. For information on how weapons
manufacturers spent $51 million to lobby for the NATO Expansion
Treaty, see PSR, 4/98, p.3.)

Can't we cut off tax dollars from controversial
agencies?

Getting rid of the federal agency that continues to
fund obscene "art" with taxpayers' money should have
been a no-brainer for the Republican Congress. Despite
the latest outrage at the Brooklyn Museum (which
received $500,000 from the National Endowment for the
Arts over the past three years), where a current exhibit
shows the Virgin Mary spattered with elephant dung and
pornographic pictures, we got brave words from Congress but no cuts. (PS column on "Hate Art," 10/13/99)

The Senate passed Sen. Bob Smith's (R-NH) denunciation of this "religious bigotry," but then on Aug. 8
upped the NEA's budget by $5 million. On Oct. 4 the
House approved Rep. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) amendment
to condemn this "sacrilegious" exhibit. On July 14 a
House amendment to increase the NEA funding by $10
million was narrowly defeated 217-207. The Republican
House leadership stood firm against any increase and
kept NEA funding at "only" $98 million.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
was embarrassed by the scandal that this taxpayer
financed agency was sharing its donor lists with Democratic fundraisers and pro-abortion groups. Congress
wasn't embarrassed, however, and by H.Amdt.391 to
H.R.2670 rewarded CPB with an additional $10 million,
bringing its budget to $350,000,000.

Congress gave the Legal Services Corporation a $5
million raise over its FY1999 budget, despite a 1999
General Accounting Office report that some LSC offices
inflated their caseloads as much as 70%. Started as a
federal program to help the poor, LSC is today a lawyers' playground for leftwing lobbying and class-action
lawsuits.

Where does the pro-life agenda stand?

The Senate passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban,
S.1692, by a vote of 63-34. Since 2 pro-life Senators
were absent, we are now just 2 votes shy of a veto-proof
majority. Clinton will veto the bill after its expected
House passage in 2000. Unfortunately, the Senate in a
51-47 vote agreed to a non-binding "Sense of Congress"
amendment that Roe v. Wade "should not be overturned." This should be deleted in Conference.

Because of the globalists' demand that the U.S.
pay alleged "back UN dues," Clinton was forced to agree
to a UN-abortion-funding deal. Pro-life language known
as the "Mexico City Policy" was attached to the $385
million appropriation for international family planning
so that 96% ($370 million) cannot be spent to perform
abortions or to lobby foreign governments on their
abortion laws. Language was also added to the law to
prevent the UN from directly taxing U.S. citizens, and
the U.S. contribution to the UN budget was reduced to
22% from 25%.

All new attempts to force taxpayers to pay for
more abortions for federal employees, military personnel, federal prisoners, and DC residents and employees
were defeated or withdrawn in the House and Senate.

The House passed a resolution, H.Res.350 on Nov.
9 sponsored by Reps. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Joe Pitts
(R-PA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) calling for hearings to
investigate the trafficking in body parts from babies
killed by abortion. Current federal law prohibits the
transfer of aborted babies or their parts for "valuable
consideration," but at least two companies appear to be
selling body parts and even intact bodies of dead babies
to researchers for profit. The Senate also considered this
issue on Oct. 21 but defeated 46-51 Sen. Bob Smith's
(R-NH) amendment to require certain disclosures and
impose regulations on this trafficking in baby body parts.

The House passed the Child Custody Protection
Act (CCPA) by 270-159 on June 30. Authored by Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), this would make it a federal
crime to take a minor across state lines for an abortion
without the consent or notification of a parent if her
residing state has parental involvement laws. CCPA
thus upholds states' rights by not allowing a minor to
evade her state law. The Senate is expected to take up
H.R. 1218 or the Senate companion bill, S.661, in 2000.

The House passed the Unborn Victims of Violence
Act, H.R.2436, on Sept. 30 by 254-172. Authored by
Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), an individual who commits a violent federal crime can also be prosecuted for a
separate offense if he kills or injures an unborn child.
The Senate is expected to consider H.R. 2436 or its
companion bill, S.1673, in 2000.

The House passed the Pain Relief Promotion Act,
H.R. 2260, by 271-156 on Oct. 27, amending the federal
Controlled Substances Act, in order to promote pain
management and end-of-life care while reaffirming that
assisted suicide and euthanasia are not permitted. The
Senate is expected to act on either H.R. 2260 or its
Senate companion, S.1272, in 2000.

More attempts to have the 'village' raise children.

The Treasury/Postal Appropriations bill included
a Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD) amendment to allow
federal agencies to help employees pay for child care,
but only if the children are cared for in a daycare facility,
not in the home. Daycare as a middle-class entitlement
is a longtime feminist goal. (PSR: 12/97, p.1-2)

Due to the legislative perseverance of Rep. Ernest
Istook (R-OK), the House initially froze Title X funding
at FY1999 levels and earmarked $2 million for
abstinence-only in the FY2000 budget and another $20
million in FY2001. Title X is the source of controversial
"family planning" services which distribute contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs, such as the morning-after pill, to teens without their parents' knowledge or
consent. However, the pro-abortion budget negotiators,
Rep. John Porter (R-IL) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA),
were successful in increasing Title X from $214.9
million to $238.9 million, an 11.2% increase over
FY1999.

The phony Patent 'reform' bill passed, after all.
Congress ignored powerful criticisms from American
inventors and Nobel Laureates that the Patent Reform
bill, H.R. 1907, would allow foreign and multinational
corporations to reduce the constitutional patent rights of
American inventors by legislating the deal made by the
late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown with the Japanese
Ambassador on Aug. 16, 1994. The House passed the
Patent bill anyway, after many last-minute revisions, on
Aug. 3 under a steamroller process that allowed the
advocates of the bill to control both sides of a mere one-hour debate. The fight against the bill was nobly led in
the Senate by Kit Bond (R-MO) and Richard Shelby (R-AL), but Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) maneuvered so that the Senate was never permitted
to debate or even vote on the Patent bill. He then slipped
the entire House-passed bill into the final budget bill so
that the Patent bill could not be rejected without shutting
down the government. Clinton signed the Patent bill
into law as part of the budget bill. The bill is a gift to the
Japanese, the Chinese and the multinational corporations
at the expense of independent inventors and the innovation and entrepreneurial advantages they bring to
America. Score another victory for corporate "soft
money" politics. (PSR: 3/98, p.1-4)

Did Congress deserve a pay raise? Over the
strenuous objections of conservative Republican Members, the House on July 15, voted itself a 3.4% cost-of-living raise, from $136,700 to $141,300 a year (plus
medical and pension benefits and travel budgets). A
parliamentary maneuver prevented a roll-call vote.

PSR = references to background information in the Phyllis
Schlafly Report. All these articles are also available on our
website: www.eagleforum.org where you can also see our
Scoreboard showing how each Senator and Representative voted.

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